Plane shot down over Donbas

The aircraft on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur downed in Donetsk region, in east Ukraine.

Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines downed to earth on the territory of Ukraine not far from the Russian border. “Interfax-Ukraine” information agency was told about that on Thursday, July 17 by a source in aviation circles.

“A Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, started a push-down 50 kilometres before entering the air space of Russia. Later it was found burning on the ground at te territory of Ukraine,” the source said.

According to the source, the plane had 280 passengers and 15 crew on board.

“It fell in the area of the settlement of Hrabovo,” a source of “UKrainskaya Pravda” news outlet informs.

Later Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, confirmed this information and told that the plane had been shot down by rebels. “Just a moment ago a passenger plane on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam was shot down near the town on Torez by terrorists operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system… 280 passengers and 15 crew members are killed,” he informed.

Ukraerorukh enterprise states that they know about this situation, however they offered to ask comments from the State Aviation Service. It is informed there that they cannot confirm or refute the report.

It should be stressed that rebels in Donetsk region have antiaircraft defense systems which can hit planes at high altitudes. It has been said by a spokesperson of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Anatoly Lysenko.

“There are reports that some defense systems able to shoot down planes at high altitudes moved through the territory of Ukraine. There was a Buk medium-range surface-to-air missile systems surface- among them. One of the columns moved through Luhansk,” he said.